The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland offers harrowing descriptions of the brutality of Auschwitz, and also the heroic tale of an incredible escape to expose those evils. It’s brilliantly written, a compelling read.
It doesn’t seem to matter what one has read or watched previously – the horrors of Auschwitz arrive fresh with each telling, the inhumanity never shrinks.
This is the take of a young Slovakian Jew who is swept up by the Nazi killing machine, but through wit, cunning, and intelligence Rudolf Vrba somehow survives long enough in the death camp to become aware of the scale of the horror.
He works as slave labour across many of both Auschwitz and Birkenau’s functions – clearing the luggage and dead bodies from the carriages each time a new train arrives, sorting valuables from their luggage, administering the paperwork of the victims. Over time these open Vrba’s eyes to the industrial slaughter, and the one thing that he believes enables it.
The complete secrecy of the operation means that each new transport brings naive victims, lambs to the slaughter. They all believe they are being resettled, none can contemplate that they are being sent to their deaths. The SS perpetrate this right up to the moment people enter the gas chambers, telling them to fold their clothes neatly and tie their shoes together so they can more easily find them again them once they have showered.
Rudolph has a compelling desire to tell the world what is happening. He believes that once the remaining Jews across Europe are aware, they will fight and struggle, and resist the genocide. He believes the Allied leaders will come to the rescue of the camp, bombing the train lines and stopping the transports.
So with a partner he hatches and executes a daring escape plan, and becomes one of only four Jews to ever escape the camp.
The story is one of amazing resilience, survival, and guts. It’s full of detail and research, but the storytelling bring each page to life with the very best and worst of humanity.
